‘Royals,’ that is what we are, it is who we are and who we are proud to be. It may not be known to some of you, especially families that are new to San Marcos High School, but our school branding and logo has had discussions surrounding it over the past couple years over what it should be. Never was there a suggestion that San Marcos would be anything other than the Royals but what was discussed was which ‘royal’ emblem (logo) and fonts we should use to brand our school.
When Dr. Glazer was principal of San Marcos (2019-2022), the logo had been altered with two noticeable differences— the lion had no tongue or claws, and instead of an oval surrounding the figure, a shield was selected. Many people were concerned that not enough people were consulted when this version was adopted.
The newest update about the logo was sent via ParentSquare, on January 12th of this year. A letter was sent from Principal, Mr. Holdren, “The committee agrees that henceforth, the official logo for San Marcos will be the traditional Lion, an example of which can be found on this letterhead.” (Image to the right.)
Principal Mr. Holdren references a committee that was involved in the process of selecting the San Marcos branding and logo. The committee consisted of the presidents of ASB, the senior class, the PTSA, the Alumni Association, the Athletics Boosters, and many more members from essentially every group on campus including teachers, coaches, administrators, and more. This committee met once in both November and December of 2022, and a third time in January 2023.
As all these discussions regarding the San Marcos logo were happening, an alumni from the class of 1974, Satini Puailoa, the son of Satini ‘Sut’ Puailoa (who our football field is named after), made a post on Facebook relaying the history of the Royals logo.
In his message he wrote that the rampant lion (what our logo is currently) “symbolizes courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness, and valor” and is known historically as the “king of beasts.” It has been a long journey to get to our modern lion figure now. At first before 1970, the logo was only for the school’s football team, then became “Royals,” and often went back and forth between the two, including with or without a shield or an oval surrounding the lion. It was also partly inspired by an Italian flag from some of the first exchange students that came to San Marcos. Something fun to know too is that the first lion was actually a cartoon “Leroy the Lion” used in the old King’s Page editions.
While the history of our school branding and logo was not driving the decisions during these meetings, it is still important to recognize it, the people involved, and where San Marcos Royals started. It shows how the logo and branding makes the San Marcos community more unified. That was one of the goals of updating and modernizing the branding.
With social media being so popular and other digital platforms it was requested in 2019 for better digital files. At this time a group worked with a marketing expert to accomplish this, but were interrupted in March 2020 by the pandemic. Despite this pause, students continued working together and made the first San Marcos branding guide. It is being updated again and will be distributed later since the most recent decision of the committee. With this guide, containing the fonts, colors and design elements, school uniforms and merchandise (gear) will be sold and in a way create solidarity, under one logo. Something people will recognize and know it is the San Marcos Royals.
“There was a movement to unify everything,” said Athletic Director, Mr. Solis. He also mentioned how students were the ones who initially brought up the desire to go back to the previous logo once Principal Holdren was here. Our community is strong and cares about the well being of San Marcos.
Assistant Principal and SMHS alumni from class of 1996, Dr. Alvarez said that it is time to “define who we are in a way that is cohesive, comprehensive, consistent, strong, and reflects what it means to be a Royal.”
So, with all of the discussions surrounding our school branding and logo within the past few years, we have hopefully reached a point where everyone on campus is satisfied because everyone’s voice was considered during the decision making process and as Principal Holdren said, “everybody involved had the best interests at heart.”
Look out for the many versions of logos representing the past of the Royals around campus and watch-out for upcoming gear being sold!
